Janis Fink (1951-) was born and grew up on a New Jersey farm,  raised by her Jewish parents; dad Victor taught music, inspiring her early interest in the piano, which she began studying at 2. Then she learned to play acoustic guitar and harmonica. Mum Pearl worked in an eduational career, and in that Cold War era,…

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Patrick Joseph Ken­nedy (1858–1929) was the son of poor Irish im­migrants who married in Boston in 1849. Originally a saloon-owner in Boston who ex­pand­ed to own a whiskey importation business, Patrick Kennedy made a good living in al­co­hol, and became the first family member to enter local politics. When Prohib­ition became law in 1920, importers…

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Phar Lap was born in Timaru New Zealand in 1926, a chestnut gelding standing 17 hands high. The yearling was one of those sent by Sea-down Stud owner Alec Roberts to the Trentham sales. Sydney trainer Harry Telford received a copy of the N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue in Jan 1928 and was impressed by…

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The most important Japanese tour for my grandchildren in 2024 was Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial. My children and I heard my father’s WW2 history many times, but my grand children knew nothing from the family. So they read the following from Atomic Archive before they left Australia.Product Exhibition Hall and dome by Czech architect Jan Letzel built 1915taken…

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Bruno Bettelheim Tantor mediaBruno Bettelheim (1903–90) was born in Vienna, son of a middle-class Jewish lumber merchant. He entered Vienna Uni, but was forced to leave to take over his fam­ily business when his father sickened. In 1930, he married school-teacher Gina Al­stadt, a dis­ciple of Anna Freud.During the 1930s Bruno and Gina took care of…

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Established through the Will of Cecil John Rhodes of the diamond company De Beers in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship was a very progressive project in the new century. 120+ years later, the Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest and most respected international scholarship programme anywhere, enabling talented young people around the world to undertake full-time postgraduate study…

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Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)’s father had been a Universal­ist preacher. With their emphasis on a loving God, Universalists were early advocates of endling slavery and the first church to ordain women. In 1886 Univ­ers­alist Aug­usta Chapin bec­ame minister of the Oak Park Unity Church Chicago, attr­acting new members to the assembly including Lloyd Wright’s mother Anna.…

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The Apollo Awards have been celebrated since 1992 with fine ceremonies. It’s still as important as ever to celebrate outstand­ing ach­ieve­ments in the museum world. Yet senior museum com­m­entators warn­ed that mus­eum culture may not endure with its cur­rent sense of purp­ose; funding for both national and regional instit­utions being squeez­ed still further. Thus the…

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American Nancy Langhorne (1879-1964) was born in Virginia, daughter of a wealthy railroad entrepreneur. In the 1890s Nancy and her sis­ter Irene were enrolled in a finishing school in New York where they were prepared for entering high society. Nancy met and married her first husband Robert Gould Shaw II in 1897 in New York…

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Everyone in Australia knows I've always been a Leonard Cohen fan, and last year my best birthday present was the new book Leonard Cohen The Mystical Roots of Genius by Harry Freedman (Bloomsbury). Good choice, spouse.Leonard's (1934–2016) maternal family were Lithuanian rabbis. His paternal grandfather left Poland for Ontario in 1869, where he too was…

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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-61) came from a small German state whose ruling family married into many European royals; in 1840 he mar­ried Vict­or­ia, his first cousin. The Queen came to rely heavily on his advice, and their marriage seemed happy. With his wife con­stant­ly preg­nant (9 babies in 17 years), Albert performed the fun­ctions…

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"Sodankäynnin amatöörit puhuvat strategiasta ja taktiikasta. Ammattilaiset puhuvat logistiikasta."Kannattaa penkoa DVD-kauppoja! Kampin Sähkötalossa toimivasta, erittäin tasokkaasta Filmihullusta löytyi taannoin pienehkö aarre: The Red Ball Express (1952).Huoltopuoli on harvemmin sodassa glorifioitua, saati sitten elokuvissa teemana. The Red Ball Express on tässä mielessä sekä filmausajankohdaltaan (1952) että aiheeltaan hyvin erikoinen.The Red Ball Express oli Normandian maihinnousun jälkeen…

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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)Kuva: Wikipedia.orgTällä kertaa plakkariin tarrautui Mel Gibsonin Hacksaw Ridge (2016), joka kertoo II maailmansotaan Tyynellämerellä lääkintämiehenä osallistuneesta  yhdysvaltalaisesta aseistakieltäytyjästä Doss Desmondista. Desmond sai urheudestaan sodan jälkeen Medal of Honorin. Muistin lukeneeni tästä hyviä arvioita, joten odotukset olivat suht korkealla.Valitettavasti heti kärkeen sai todeta, että elokuvan alku on pateettinen ja suorastaan siirappinen. Lapsuus veljen…

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